Joe Pulizzi Discusses Content Marketing World 2012

Joe Pulizzi, the “godfather of content marketing” will kick off his 2nd Content Marketing World event in Columbus Ohio, September 4-6, 2012. Joe discusses how the recent Panda & Penguin updates from Google have finally told everyone it’s all about the content. No gimmicks, just great content. He ends with a few top reasons to attend CMW this year.

Transcription (edited):

Arnie: Hello I’m Arnie Kuenn, President of Vertical Measures, a search, social, and content marketing agency in Phoenix, Arizona. Today I’d like to introduce you to Joe Pulizzi, the godfather of content marketing. He’s going to kick off his second Content Marketing World event in Columbus, Ohio. It’s going to be September 4th through the 6th, and you don’t want to miss this event. Hey, Joe, how are you doing?

Joe: Good. How are you? Thanks for having me, and I’ve got to love that Godfather comment.

Arnie: I pulled it right from the website, so it has to be true.

Joe: I know. That’s it. If it’s on the internet, it’s true, right?

Arnie: Exactly. Joe, I think I’m going to start off by saying that this might finally be the year that content marketing explodes. You’ll probably chuckle when I say that. In fact, maybe two, maybe three weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about Google’s Penguin and Panda updates they’ve been rolling out this entire year. It really, I think, finally made the statement that it’s all about content. No gimmicks, just good quality content. I’m curious to know from your perspective what you’ve seen so far this year.

Joe: Honestly, Arnie, I can’t believe it’s moving this fast. If you’d have asked me a couple years ago, let’s even say 2009 – I mean, content marketing, by the way, you know this, we’ve talked about it, it’s been around for hundreds of years. This is nothing new. It’s just finally exploded. Now it’s along the same conversations as paid media, which our attention to paid media has been so far in one direction over the past several years, well many years.

Now, people are starting to say, ‘Well, if I want to be found, and I want my content to be shared, and I want to earn attention instead of interruption create really valuable, compelling, and relevant information on a consistent basis. Very similar to what media companies have done for years.

So, I would agree with you and say, probably in the last six to nine months with the updates that Google as done, with the concepts that marketers are smart – they understand that if they want to be successful in social, in search, and in lead gen, and everything else they’re doing, PR for that matter, marketing communications – you’ve got to have compelling information on a consistent basis.

It’s not a nice-to-have anymore. I think that’s what we’ve really learned over the past year or two. That if this is going to work, don’t put traditional away. Content marketing can make your traditional programming that much better, but you have to have them to make it work.

Arnie: Right. It’s no shortcuts either. SEO’s used to just spew content out, and that doesn’t work anymore either.

Joe: Well, that’s the great thing about this whole thing happening, is that there is no shortcuts. We’ve all figured out the basics. The basics aren’t good enough. You just have to do those, and have to know them. You have to make sure that, really in order for people to share your content. It’s got to be pretty darn good to get that kind of attention on an ongoing basis.

So, that means you’ve got to create some of the best stuff in your industry, even sometimes on par or better than what the industry niche publication you’re running up against.

Joe: Well, thank you for the opportunity. I guess I would say that it’s the one event that I think you can go to in the world right now where you can, first of all, meet the leading experts in the industry. I mean, you know. You’re on the list. We know that the who’s who of content marketing is at this event, from a client’s side and from a vendor’s side. So, that’s a wonderful opportunity.

I’m actually very excited and I’m looking forward to seeing the 70 speakers that are going to be there. Almost to a tee, they are people that I want to meet with, and I want to talk to them to figure out how they’re dealing with content marketing challenges.

I think the other thing, that we do it differently. So, you know if you’re going to go, you’re going to get strategy and how-to information around every part of content marketing. You know you will get that. There are well over 45 different sessions.

Every industry – B2B, B2C, nonprofit, small companies, large companies, everything, but I think the thing that I love the best is that you’ll have fun. We really try to make this fun. I’m a believer in events and putting on events that, if you’re not having a good time and you’re not entertained, you’re not going to get the most out of it.

So if you’re looking for approval, you don’t have to tell your immediate supervisor you’re going to have fun. You could say it’s all work, but you’ll get both out of the event.

Arnie: Yeah. I’ve got to tell you, last year’s in Cleveland, I know that what we were all talking about – to your face and behind your back – was it seemed like this was the eighth or the ninth or the tenth one. It was really, really well done, Joe. I’ve got to tell you that you’ve got the bar pretty high. I know you’re working hard to leap over that bar in Columbus, and I wish you the best with that, by the way.

Joe: Thank you very much. I think that we will. I think that’s coming – it’s been a year and so much has happened. There are so many different directions we could take it. So, we really worked hard almost the day after last year’s event, to say, “Who do we get, and how do we top this?” We put in all the time to do that, and hopefully we’ll succeed at that.

Arnie: Yeah. Well, it looks great. Well, I don’t know if you’re willing to do this, but do you have anything that isn’t quite public yet that you’re willing to share? Any surprises?

Joe: We have a couple of things that we’re not ready to unleash yet. The new thing that just happened, and most people don’t know about it, but our closing keynote is going to be Jack Hanna. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Jack, but if you’ve watched the Letterman Show for years, he’s been on Letterman forever.

Jack Hanna is probably the most famous zookeeper in the world. What’s really interesting about this story, first of all he’ll have the animals there. He’s really entertaining. So, you’ll get entertained with it. But I think his story, and how he’s leveraged content marketing to grow – basically the Columbus Zoo, I think it’s last year, they were named the #1 Zoo in the World. Most people think it’s San Diego.

Arnie: Right.

Joe: I think San Diego’s a fantastic zoo. I’ve been there. But Columbus is amazing, if you’ve never been there, and he’s done a lot of that through content creation and distribution. So, I think we can learn a lot from that. So, that’s one new thing. We have a couple speakers we haven’t announced yet, we want to save it for the end.

Then of course, it’s been on the site for a while, is Rick Springfield. So, if you like him, if you don’t like Rick Springfield, you’ll certainly have a good time. So, in between day one and two, we’re all going to party all night long and listen to a little bit of “Jessie’s Girl” while we do it.

Arnie: Super. All righty. Well, listen, that’s all the time that we have for this particular interview. I’m looking forward to the conference myself, and if anybody is watching this, I highly, highly recommend it. I want to thank you for your time, Joe, and we will see you in September.

Content Marketing World is the largest gathering of content marketing professionals in the world. Content Marketing World is the one event where you can learn and network with the best and the brightest in the content marketing industry. You will leave with all the materials you need to take a content strategy back to your team – and – implement a content marketing plan that will grow your business and engage your audience. Content Marketing World 2012 takes place on September 4 – 6, 2012 at the Columbus Convention Center, Columbus, Ohio.